In the matter of false equivalencies, there is Gary Bettman’s reference to NFL and NBA players accepting reduced percentages of revenue following lockouts imposed by their respective leagues.
It is true pro basketball and pro football players ultimately agreed to take a smaller piece of their pies, yet the cap remained unchanged in the NBA following that league’s lockout while the cap in the NFL was initially reduced by less than six percent.
Neither the NBA nor NFL demanded its athletes submit to rollbacks of existing contracts, a tactic embraced by NHL owners who apparently regard currency in long-term contracts as equivalent to confederate money.
Moreover, neither the NBA nor NFL gained concessions on systemic issues such as free agency out of their lockouts. NBA players won on the issue of escrow. NFL players gained $1 billion of additional benefits for retired players while also bargaining for increased takes of future national media revenue.
The football and basketball negotiations have as much or as little relevancy to hockey’s bargaining as does Major League Baseball’s current CBA.
But if Bettman insists on citing the NFL and NBA in an attempt to bolster his own league’s position, he might at least want to do so in a more comprehensive, and I dare say, more honest manner.
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The gulf between the Rangers and unsigned Group II free agent Michael Del Zotto may not be quite as wide as the one separating the NHL and the NHLPA, but we’re told the parties are not close to striking a deal.
Negotiations are expected to intensify over the next couple of weeks between management and the 22-year-old defenseman, who is coming off an entry level deal under which he earned a base of $962,500 per season with an additional $125,000 available in bonuses.
The Blueshirts are believed to be offering a multi-year deal in the neighborhood of $2.2 million to $2.5 million per season to Del Zotto, who faces some urgency given the looming Sept. 15 shutdown of business and the possibility that less will be available under the cap under the next CBA.
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Lubomir Visnovsky, who filed a grievance to stop his trade from the Ducks to the Islanders, will get his day in his NHL arbitration court on Sept. 4, Slap Shots has learned.
The 36-year-old defenseman, dealt on June 23 for a 2013 second-round draft pick, did not consent to waive his no-trade clause he and the NHLPA contend should still be in force, even after he agreed to a previous trade from the Oilers to the Ducks in 2009-10.
Visnovsky is due $3 million for the final season of a five-year deal that carries a cap hit of $5.6 million, thus making him the quintessential Islander of the Charles Wang/Garth Snow Floor Regime.
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There is scant optimism within the Rangers’ camp that Michael Sauer, sidelined for the duration after being concussed last Dec. 5 on a hit delivered by Dion Phaneuf, will be cleared for a return to duty, even if this season’s opener is delayed by months.
If Sauer, said to be feeling better than he was before returning home to Minnesota for the summer but is not believed symptom-free, cannot play, he would be placed on the long-term injury list.
The 25-year-old defenseman’s older brother, Craig, has suffered from depression after sustaining multiple concussions while playing six years in the NFL for the Falcons and Vikings.
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Derek Stepan, Ryan McDonagh, Carl Hagelin and Del Zotto (if signed) all would require waivers in order to be assigned to the AHL Whale in the event of a lockout, if the NHL and NHLPA operate under the guidelines that were in place in 2004-05 .
The NHLPA makes a valid point that non-player spending, which fluctuates wildly within the league, can be as determinative in performance as payroll, and thus the proposal to cap those expenses as well.
But it is certainly not in the union’s best interests to limit those expenditures that would include travel, as well as salaries for coaches and general managers.
Does the PA want teams to return to flying commercial airlines rather than charter? In that case, the “no middle seat” clause could become more valuable than the no-trade clause.
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Of course John Tortorella loves dogs. Canines do not ask questions.
Seriously, though, the Rangers coach’s cause in support of rescue, humane treatment and adoption of dogs via the John and Christine Tortorella Family Foundation is a righteous one.
The Rangers and the Foundation are co-hosting a dog walk at Riverside Park on Manhattan’s Upper West Side on the morning of Sept. 9, in which the coach, Ryan Callahan and Brad Richards will participate. Proceeds will be donated to the Westchester Humane Society and other organizations dedicated to the humane treatment of animals.
Information regarding registration for the event is available at both the Rangers’ website and the Tortorella Foundation’s website
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Slap Shots enters its annual late summer hiatus. See you (even if not the players) next month.